In 1956, while attending Menlo Business College in Palo Alto, California, Nick Reynolds would meet Dave Guard. Dave introduced Nick to his friend Bob Shane, then a student at nearby Standord. The three began harmonizing together and formed The Kingston Trio, a name that they hoped would capitilize on the calypso craze that was sweeping the music scene. A San Francisco based publicist named Stan Weber discovered the group and signed them to Capitol Records.

The Kingston Trio released an album in the spring of 1958. While the album did not intially attract much attention, a DJ in Salt Lake took notice of the song “Tom Dooley” and began airing it. Soon other stations took notice, and by November of 1958 the song was #1 in America.

Nick Reynolds stayed with the group until 1967. (Dave Guard left the group in 1961.) Reynolds moved his family to Oregon where he would become a rancher, antiques dealer and the owner of the local movie theater.

He rejoined a revived Kingston Trio in 1983 when the group released an album titled “Revenge of the Budgie”. “Budgie” was Reynolds nickname inside the group, a comment on his height!

Nick Reynolds remained with the group unti 1999. Although officially retired, he would rejoin orignal member Bob Shane and John Stewart for a series of “Trio Fantasy Camps” that were held in Scottsdale, Arizona. There, various members of the group would mingle with fans and share an extended weekend of music making.

It should be noted that the Kingston Trio’s recording of “Tom Dooley” reached #1 on the Billboard charts in November 17, 1958. As we mark the 50th anniversary of this achievement, we should remember Nick Reynold’s contribution fondly. According to Bob Shane, the Kingston Trio based their recording on an early version that was recorded by the Folksay Trio in NYC in the early 1950’s. The Folksay Trio consisted of Roger Sprung, Lionel Kilberg, and Erik Darling. Erik Darling would become a member of the Tarriers, and they would record a version of “Tom Dooley” in 1957. It would be a year later that the Kingston Trio would take the song to a wider audience.

While the Kingston Trio were not the first group to record the song that was collected by Frank Warner, they were the ones who turned a nation’s attention to folk music. While the subsequent commercial folk revival has left scars, it is without a doubt that the Kingston Trio inspired many people to explore the music. Earlier this year we lost John Stewart, Dave Guard’s replacement in the Kingston Trio. This summer we lost Erik Darling as well as Lionel Kilberg, two of the three members of the Kingston Trio.

These individuals helped build a foundation of a musical genre that continues to thrive. Some people like to claim that “folk music” died the day Bob Dylan went electric at Newport. That is far from the truth. Folk music has continued to be a living tradition and has changed popular music and our culture. Nick Reynolds and the Kingston Trio opened a door to the world. They were not the first to knock on that door, but they accomplished something that NO other group or artist were able to do up to that time. While the Weavers brought folk music to a national audience a few years earlier, it was the Kingston Trio that truly delivered the music to new ears.

All of these individuals are links on a chain – a chain that is not a closed loop. The chain stretches from generation to generation and new links continue to be formed. We should always take time to honor the individuals who forged that chain, and Nick Reynolds and the Kingston Trio deserve more credit than they are currently given.